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folks

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folk

  [fohk]
Use folks in a Sentence
–noun
1. Usually, folks. (used with a plural verb) people in general: Folks say there wasn't much rain last summer.
2. Often, folks. (used with a plural verb) people of a specified class or group: country folk; poor folks.
3. (used with a plural verb) people as the carriers of culture, esp. as representing the composite of social mores, customs, forms of behavior, etc., in a society: The folk are the bearers of oral tradition.
4. folks, Informal.
a. members of one's family; one's relatives: All his folks come from France.
b. one's parents: Will your folks let you go?
5. Archaic. a people or tribe.
–adjective
6. of or originating among the common people: folk beliefs; a folk hero.
7. having unknown origins and reflecting the traditional forms of a society: folk culture; folk art.
—Idiom
8. just folks, Informal. (of persons) simple, unaffected, unsophisticated, or open-hearted people: He enjoyed visiting his grandparents because they were just folks.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE folc; c. OS, ON folk, OHG folk (G Volk)

Synonyms:
4. kinfolk, kin, relations, people; clan, tribe.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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folk   (fōk)   
n.   pl. folk or folks

    1. The common people of a society or region considered as the representatives of a traditional way of life and especially as the originators or carriers of the customs, beliefs, and arts that make up a distinctive culture: a leader who came from the folk.

    2. Archaic A nation; a people.

    3. The members of one's family or childhood household; one's relatives.

    4. One's parents: My folks are coming for a visit.

  2. Informal People in general. Often used in the plural: Folks around here are very friendly.

  3. People of a specified group or kind. Often used in the plural: city folks; rich folk.

  4. folks Informal

    1. The members of one's family or childhood household; one's relatives.

    2. One's parents: My folks are coming for a visit.

adj.  Of, occurring in, or originating among the common people: folk culture; a folk hero.

[Middle English, from Old English folc; see pelə-1 in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
folks

  1. n.
    one's parents. (Always with the possessive.) : I'll have to ask my folks if I can go.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

folk 
O.E. folc "common people, men, tribe, multitude," from P.Gmc. *folkom (cf. O.Fris. folk, M.Du. volc, Ger. Volk "people"), from P.Gmc. *fulka-, perhaps originally "host of warriors;" cf. O.N. folk "people," also "army, detachment;" and Lith. pulkas "crowd," O.C.S. pluku "division of an army," both believed to have been borrowed from P.Gmc. Some have attempted, without success, to link the word to Gk. plethos "multitude;" L. plebs "people, mob," populus "people" or vulgus. Superseded in most senses by people. Colloquial folks "people of one's family" first recorded 1715. Folksy "sociable, unpretentious" is 1852, U.S. colloquial, from folks + -y.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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